The Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life has published a pastoral framework to help dioceses begin a synodal process for strengthening and promoting the pastoral care of human life. Source: CNS.
The aim is to help all Catholics defend, safeguard and promote all human life worldwide and in different cultural contexts at a time that is “marked by extremely serious violations of human dignity,” the dicastery said in a statement on Monday, which was the eve of the 30th anniversary of St John Paul II’s encyclical, Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).
Titled, Life is always a good. Initiating Processes for a Pastoral Care of Human Life, the 40-page framework seeks to reaffirm St John Paul’s words as repeatedly emphasised by Pope Francis and to “draw the attention of all people of goodwill who wish to be at the service of communities to effectively defend and promote every human person’s life,” Cardinal Kevin Farrell, dicastery prefect, wrote in its preface.
Many countries are afflicted by wars and all sorts of violence, “especially against women, children before and after birth, adolescents, people with disabilities, the elderly, the poor and migrants”, he wrote.
“We must forge a genuine pastoral care of human life to put into practice what is also reiterated in the recent declaration, Dignitas Infinita (Infinite Dignity), of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith,” he added.
The principle that every person’s life should always be respected, safeguarded and defended, which is evident in church teaching and recognisable even by reason, must be “implemented in every country, village and household” with special emphasis on helping young people understand and welcome the value of life, the cardinal wrote.
However, he wrote, the framework does not provide local churches “with preset and ready-to-use recipes”. Instead, it offers ways to initiate “processes” that involve the entire body of the Church, reflective of the synodal process begun in 2021.
Through dialogue, listening, prayer and discernment, all the faithful with the guidance of the Holy Spirit can work “to create the conditions to welcome and accompany life anywhere and anytime,” Cardinal Farrell wrote.
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Pro-life movement needs new approach, driven by all the faithful, dicastery says (By Carol Glatz, CNS)
